The Richest Girl in the World (1934)

Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Whether or not money can buy happiness (or just rents it) is a question still being pondered millenniums after the appearance of the first gold diggers. Today, having tons of money may get your name in the paper or most likely just pay for a good therapist, but in the depression, if you were lucky enough not to have lost your shirt or skirt in the stock market, you had to wonder if the broke heir or heiress or the dashing young man or sexy chorus girl was after you or your bank roll. Real life heiresses Barbara Hutton and Doris Duke had their prestigious but sometimes lonely lives documented in T.V. movies, even appearing together as pals in the 2001 Doris Duke bio, "Too Rich".Their fictional depression era movie counterpart is introduced as the orphaned daughter of wealthy parents who went down on the Titanic, and to avoid unwanted publicity, she has lived in seclusion all her life. The audience learns early on in this light screwball comedy with dramatic moments that the real heiress (Miriam Hopkins) has switched places with her secretary (Fay Wray) in the hopes of finding a husband who loves her, not her status or bank account. She's actually a very lovely young lady, fun and caring, yet definitely insecure over her ability to attract a man. Along comes handsome Joel McCrea who makes a bee-line for Wray but also enjoys spending time with Hopkins whom he considers a "buddy". Wray goes along for the prank, yet unlike in the badly remade "Bride By Mistake", is always prepared to relinquish her status should the plan backfire.A well-written and complex comedy, this is a film without a real complete conclusion, but that gives the audience the opportunity to determine how they would like the revelation of the truth to come out. Hopkins and McCrea share a nice chemistry and prove that true love does usually start off with the two being more pals than lovers. Wray's character is never really developed beyond just being an agreeable part of the scheme, but Henry Stephenson is excellent as Hopkins' adviser. Droll Reginald Denny and loyal Beryl Mercer round out the supporting cast for a comedy that doesn't answer all the questions about what it takes to be a happy rich person, but then that answer needs to come from the person whose life desire it is to be wealthy.

I'd like to recommend this because I like the cast and director but I found it rather dull. It's not quite funny enough to be a comedy and the romance is improbable and unengaging.Miriam Hopkins is the richest girl in the world and finds it hard to attract men, because the men don't want to be seen as opportunists. (That proposition is funnier than any of the gags in the movie.) So she switches places with her secretary, the good-natured Fay Wray.In this guise, she meets Joel McRea, an honest, ordinary sort of bloke. One of Hopkins' staff looks into his background. Not a great deal of money, but the scion of an old Boston family, a broker on Wall Street or something, and a graduate degree from Yale. "About average," says Hopkins' adviser, the avuncular Henry Stephenson, in all seriousness. That's funnier than any of the gags too.Hopkins decides to put McRea to the test by pushing him in the direction of Fay Wray, who McRea still believes to be the richest girl in the world. Will McRea give up Hopkins (who is REALLY the richest girl in the world) for Fay Wray (who is only PRETENDING to be the richest girl in the world but is already married to King Kong)? Are you kidding? Actually, I would have given up the smitten Miriam Hopkins for Fay Wray in an instant. Wray is better looking, unwittingly sexy, and even as a secretary, she still makes a lot more money than I do. If Fay Wray didn't swoon once within my cloud of pheromones, if she didn't fall for me immediately, I'd have beaten her into it.

The Richest Girl in the World in 1934 meant Barbara Hutton. Her exploits made her the Paris Hilton of the day. Did anyone seriously think that by titling the lead character Dorothy Hunter that RKO wasn't trying to cash in on Hutton's reputation?Miriam Hopkins as Dorothy Hunter is naturally concerned with both privacy and wanting to know if she would really be marrying someone for love. She's hatched a scheme with her secretary Fay Wray to in public exchange identities. But that may come to an end soon as Fay is looking to marry Reginald Denny.But along comes Joel McCrea who's got his own ideas about supporting himself in the true McCrea tradition. Hopkins crushes out on him big time and he falls for her thinking she's the secretary.I can't say more, but any movie fan can take this plot from here. Still the leads are at their best and the film is good entertainment.But who was RKO kidding?

Agree with prior comments. Nice period piece that you'll see elements of other ones to come like His Girl Friday. Screenplay got Oscar nom. Fay Wray had RKO's biggest grosser King Kong previous year, 1933. Then made 11 pictures before this one in 1934! Studios really pushed their people. Of course, many were of the "play" type and of short length so the Formula could roll them along. That's both good and bad. This one does hold interest tho. Great faces on the women and high style Art Deco look.